With three knots of current in the stern we were pushed up the Florida Strait towards the pilot station. With two cargo ships in the same approach, we lined up for the pilot who hopped on the ship at exactly 0600 hrs as planned. Fort Lauderdale has been a Holland America home port for a… read more of “24 March 2010; Fort…”

By the early morning the ship sailed above Cuba into the Old Bahama Channel. It was fairly busy with ships as the Windward Passage, the opening between the East point of Cuba and the West point of Haiti, is a very busy route to and from the Panama Canal. Four traffic flows meet here, as… read more of “23 March 2010;…”

If you want to make it back to Fort Lauderdale in one sea day, then you have to leave Ponce at 1 pm and race full speed North of the Bahamas’ towards Florida and hope for nice weather. Nice weather so that the wind and the waves will not slow you down. That is of… read more of “22 March 2010;…”

Ponce is located on the Southside of Puerto Rico, just where the island has a little bit of an angle. That means that there is most of the time less wind than on the north side as the island provides a lee. That meant for us that on arrival it was wind still and that… read more of “21March 2010;…”

At 5 am this morning, we entered the Caribbean Sea, passing between St. Lucia and Martinique. From there it is one straight North Westerly course towards the Ponce Pilot station. I have set a 6 am pilot station time for tomorrow, so we can be docked by 7 am to facilitate the clearance of the… read more of “20 March; At Sea…”

As planned we arrived exactly at 06.30 at the pilot station and as scheduled the pilot stepped onboard at the same time. The Oceana was ahead of us with a pilot time of 0600 and she was just docking when our pilot boarded. By the time that we entered the breakwater the Oceana Pilot was… read more of “19 March 2010;…”

Barbados is a bit of an anomaly as it is an island that is located outside the chain of Caribbean islands that rests at the crest of a moon along the Eastern rim of the Caribbean Sea. It is a pleasant anomaly though, as somehow the Barbadians managed to retain their own culture and way… read more of “18 March 2010; At…”

With the rising sun in the stern we approached the islands from the East. Going slowly as the water is very shallow here. There is a pilot that takes care of all the little harbors in the area but he had a pilot boat that would make bigger places very jealous. All the areas away… read more of “17 March 2010;…”